Liar
by Pchew
Summary: Luffy isn't as over Ace's death as he led the crew to believe. Can they help him when the pain resurfaces? Rated for sailor mouth.
1. Chapter 1

AN: OH MAH GOSH. SOMETHING THAT _ISN'T_ HETALIA! Ahem...Well, I guess you could say that my inspiration for this is I don't like how the manga is going post time skip, so I got my much needed Luffy crack by writing his angst. I know this has been done in the FF community before, but I wanted to try my own hand at depicting how Lu deals with Ace's demise once the crew is back together. I do not own any part of One Piece what so ever. If I did, I probably wouldn't dislike Nami so damn much, and Ace wouldn't have died (at least not that painfully), and Luffy would be even more bad ass than he already is. But I digress.

Read now, please thanks :D

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>"<em>I'm not gonna die!" Oh Ace, you liar…<em>

Luffy lay on the deck of the Thousand Sunny, watching the clouds roll by. Normally at this time he'd be playing with Usopp and Chopper, or bugging Sanji for a snack. But not today. Today, the nineteen year old didn't want to do anything. He had other things on his mind. Like the nightmare he'd had the night before. The same nightmare that had been haunting him for the last two years.

Ace's death.

The bloody scene played over and over again in his mind. He knew he'd never escape those images, or the guilt that accompanied them, but he also knew he shouldn't dwell. He had his crew back, they were all happy and healthy. But that didn't stop him from reliving the pain more vividly each night.

Faintly, the young captain heard his chef calling them all to dinner. He slowly made his way to the galley to join the rest. As he opened the door, he was met with the strange stares of his nakama.

"What?" He innocently asked.

"Well, when you didn't run us down at the first mention of food, we got a little worried," Nami answered.

"Oh. Well, you shouldn't. I'm just not in a hurry today."

The crew shrugged, thinking it was just one of the captain's many quirks.

He sat down then, and grabbed his plate. Steak was on the menu tonight. Normally, this would've caused Luffy to jump for joy, but not right now. No, right now all it made him think of was burnt flesh. He could only stare at the meal in front of him. He didn't notice his crew's concerned faces.

"Luffy?"

He looked up, his coal eyes meeting with those of the little doctor.

"Yeah?"

"A-are you okay? You haven't touched your meat…" Chopper said. His small hooves where ringing a napkin nervously.

Before the young man could answer, he caught sight of Sanji throwing another piece of raw steak onto the grill. As flames surrounded it, the smell wafted through the kitchen. He couldn't stand it anymore; he could feel the bile rising in his throat. Throwing a hand over his mouth and muttering a small apology, Luffy bolted out the door, not hearing the frantic, confused yells of his friends.

As he wretched over the side, even more vivid memories of Ace's murder flashed through his mind. He could hear his own desperate cries for the elder to hang on, he could smell the sweat and blood that lingered around the battlefield, he could see the gaping hole in his brother's chest, and he could feel Ace's body go limp in his arms. By now tears had began mixing with the vomit, but he didn't care. The more he remembered, the harder it all came out.

The crew could only watch the scene in front of them. Never did they imagine they'd see the day that strong, invincible, jovial captain reduced to this. Suddenly, Franky pushed Zoro forward.

"Go see what's up, bro. Something's seriously messed up here."

"Why me!" the green haired man hissed.

"Because, Swordsman-san, you are the closest to Captain-san. If anyone can fix this, it is you," Robin calmly interjected.

With one last exasperated look to the rest of the crew for help, and receiving none, Zoro walked over and placed a hand on the ailing teen's shoulder. No one expected what happened next.

Luffy spun around, teary eyes blazing and glazed, and punched him in the jaw.

"WHAT THE HELL LU?"

The shorter man didn't answer, instead he dropped to the deck sobbing.

"It's not fair! It's just not fair, damn it! He lied to me and it just isn't fair!" Luffy screamed. His fingers tore at his scalp, tears still pouring from his eyes.

Zoro immediately forgot all about his bruised chin, and leaned down by his friend.

"What's not fair, Lu?"

The strawhat wearer only shook his head and screamed again. By now the crew was absolutely terrified. Luffy had always been so strong, and yet here he was having a mental breakdown before their very eyes and they couldn't do a thing about it. After what seemed like an eternity, Zoro gently spoke again, the concern thickly coating his voice.

"Luffy, please, you're scaring us. You're scaring _me. _Who lied? What's not fair? Damn it all Luffy, look at me!" By now the green haired bushido was frantic. Finally, he managed to get the other too look up, and when onyx met green, Zoro forgot how to breathe.

The boy's eyes were filled with regret and pain. His cherub like face was gaunt, stained with tears. That always smiling mouth was pulled tight. And still he refused to answer Zoro.

The remaining crew members watched sadly from the sidelines as another sob escaped their captain's chapped lips. Brook wanted to make a skull-joke about not believing his "eyes" and lighten the mood, but the scene was just to wrong. So desperately they wanted to make it better for him, but they couldn't do that if they didn't know what the problem was to begin with!

Slowly, little Chopper made his way over to the huddle mess of distraught captain and worried swordsman. With a careful innocence, the reindeer crawled into Luffy's lap, and placed a small hoof on the upset man's face.

"Luffy…" before he could finish speaking though, the raven teen had him in a bone crushing embrace, sobbing even harder than before, then fled to his room screaming "I'm sorry…I'm sorry…".

As the cabin door slammed, Zoro got to his feet, picking up Chopper in his arms as he rose. As second in command of the ship, he knew it was his responsibility to take care of everyone right now. With a glance at the rest of the crew, he motioned for them to follow him into the galley.

They had a lot to discuss.  
><p>

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>AN: Well, there ya go. My first OP fic. Please forgive any problems you may find, but if you have ideas as too anything I can fiximprove, let me know. Also, next chapter, whenever that may be, I promise I'll do my best to give crew members other that Zoro and Chopper some time in the spotlight. They are just the easiest for me too write. Reviews make me happy, so hit that wittle ol' button por favor!


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Okay, chapter two time! It's really, REALLY short, yes, but I'm having terrible writer's block with this story and it was all I could do without forcing myself to write. I would have combined this chapter and the next, but I don't like doing that xP So forgive me for the tinyness! I may go back later and add a thing or two, but I dunno.

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><p>As the eight Strawhats gathered around the table, the atmosphere of the galley seemed to get heavier and heavier with each breath. It was a few long minutes before anyone spoke.<p>

"S-so what do you think is wrong with him?"

The poor sharpshooter's voice cracked at the thought of his broken captain, his best friend. One look around the room told him that his crewmates were wondering the same thing.

"Maybe he's sick…" Chopper offered.

"No, Doctor-san, I don't think that's it. Even though he did look like it, I don't think an illness is the cause of Captain-san's troubles."

The reindeer sniffed, "O-okay." He trusted Robin's judgment, she was smart.

Next is was Brook who spoke up, "Whatever is the matter must be something awful to upset someone like the captain," He turned to the swordsman, "What do you think?"

"I don't know, but I'll be damned if we don't do something. He's helped all of us, now we got to help him," Zoro said.

Seven heads nodded in solemn agreement. It was about time they repaid their debt to the raven haired man, they just wished they didn't have to do it like this. They sat there in more silence for a while before something occurred to the navigator.

"Sanji," Nami piped softly, "Since Luffy didn't…um_…finish_ lunch, do you think you could take him some soup or something? He's got to be hungry."

It was a plausible assumption. Despite his scrawny appearance, the straw hat bearing teenager had an appetite to rival even the largest of men. Missing a single meal could be devastating to him.

Sanji, being Sanji, couldn't help but swoon.

"Oh Nami-swan is so beautiful when she's worried!" He sang. Franky, being the closest, promptly cupped the back of the blonde's head.

"Not now Sanji-bro! We don't have time for that!"

As he rubbed his bruised noggin (and ego), Sanji glared at the cyborg, "Ow! Alright, alright. I'm going. Stupid idiot making my beauties fret." No one bothered to point out how his tone betrayed his words.

Silently, he shuffled around the kitchen, gathering a simple bowl of soup and some apple juice. He would have added some meat, but after the events at lunch, it probably wouldn't be a good idea, so it was left behind.

He left the galley then, carrying the small meal with his usual graces on a tray. When he reached the door to Luffy's cabin, he kicked it gently.

"Oi, crap captain, I brought you some food."

No answer. Sanji tried again.

"Oi!"

Still no answer.

"Luffy! Damn it man, open the door already!"

With a stronger kick, the door swung open to reveal a dark room. Sanji carefully stuck his head in to look for the younger man that was supposed to be there.

"Captain? You in here shit-head?"

Disturbed by the utter silence in the normally live room, the chef entered the cabin fully, setting the glass and plate aside to turn on a light. His visible eye widened.

The room was in shambles. Luffy's pillow and blanket where thrown across the floor, tear stains clearly marring them, the random knick-knacks that had been on the shelves lay broken in their place, and in the center of it all, was the word _Ace _carved into the floorboards by what the blonde could only guess was a raw fingernail.

And no captain in sight.

Sanji searched the room before jumping to any assumptions, but upon finding nothing and thinking back to the shorter man's actions from earlier, jumped high. They'd only left him alone for a hour, damn it!

"Shit shit SHIT!" He swore and ran for the galley as fast as his strong legs could carry him.

Within seconds he was barreling in, frazzled and out of breath.

"Oi, Baka-brow, what's your problem?" Zoro snapped when the violent swing of the door almost knocked him over.

"S-shut up Marimo! Luffy's gone!"

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><p>AN: Ah! Cliffhanger! Sorry! Sorry!<br>Yeah...I don't have much practice writing Sanji. Or any of them for that matter. But I digress. There's going to be at least two more chapters of this. :D I already have three planned out a little, so it should be here soon. Unless the plot bunny that lives on my shoulder decides to randomly die again. Zombie plot bunnies don't do as good a job motivating me :T  
>*glares at word count* ...I hate you...<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

AN: OMG chapter 3! Okay so...it's the longest one yet. Though still shorter than I would have preferred. I don't really have much to say here, so um...go read now. Yes yes.

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><p>"What do you mean 'gone'? We're in the middle of the ocean!" Zorro cried.<p>

"I mean he isn't in his room and I think I know what's wro-…" Sanji shot back, but before he could finish, the feeling of a certain green form rushing past his shoulder cut him off. He didn't like that.

"Damn it Zoro! WAIT."

The swordsman didn't listen. Instead he ran towards the captain's room. He knew that Sanji was about to say something important, though it didn't matter now. One look at the chef's face had told him everything he needed to know. And none of it was good.

As he barreled into the room, Zorro saw the mess and paled considerably. He heard the others come to a stop behind him, but his attention was elsewhere. Specifically, it was on the scratches in the floor.

_Ace._

_Ace._

_Ace._

The name seemed to stare them all down.

"I told you," Sanji huffed from the back of the group, "to wait." His visible eye focused on the spot in front of them.

Nami covered her mouth with her hand, letting a few tears fall, "Ace. His brother. Oh god no wonder he's so messed up! Zoro, what do we do!"

The green haired man didn't move.

"Zoro?"

"We have to find him. Now." Zoro saw the desperation that those letters were carved with, and he knew his captain like one of his own swords. Luffy didn't get upset easily, and when he did, shit went down. But if he was upset with himself then…

Zoro didn't want to think about it.

He turned to face the rest, eyeing the historian, "Robin, can you use your Devil's Fruit to look for him?"

"Of course," she closed her eyes, "Ojos fleur."

The crew watched her and waited. If any one could find Luffy, it was Robin. Nothing could stand in the way of the woman's Hana Hana no Mi. After a few minutes, her eyes snapped open, face grim.

"He's in the boiler room."

Everyone was shocked. What was he doing in there? When such a question was voiced, no one had an answer, so they all decided to just go see for themselves.

No one spoke the entire way down, they were too afraid too. Once they got there, however, questions began to flow like rain.

"Why here?"

"Will he be mad that we followed him?"

And most importantly, "why didn't he tell us?"

Zoro could almost taste his own heart in his throat. Slowly, he turned the knob and peaked inside. He didn't know what they were going to find, but he knew it wouldn't be pretty.

He was right.

Luffy was sitting with his back to them all, knees drawn to his chest, and gazing into the fire beneath the massive tank. His hat lay on the ground behind him, seemingly forgotten. The young man's shoulders were shaking ever so slightly, and now and again, a soft noise was heard.

The captain was singing.

It wasn't his normal, off key singing, either, this was low, soft. Melodic, even. The crew leaned in slightly to listen better.

"_Take all that I could bring forth_

_Is this hell or am I on the floor over-desperate?_

_Hold hands streaming of blood again?_

_And then take full weight on me_

_Guard my dreams, figure this out_

_It's me on my own_

_Heaven, hurting, hell_

_Will you stay strong as you promised?"_

Luffy's voice cracked on the final line. A tear ran down his cheek as it escaped his lips.

His nakama took in every word of the song with solemn consideration. Their captain was in so much pain.

Gently, the crew made their way over to his side. The song may have stopped, but they could still see his lips moving, the words that came out made them freeze.

"You promised….you promised you wouldn't die. You promised you wouldn't leave me like he did. But you lied! You lied, damn it! You're dead and you LIED!"

Luffy was still in his hunched position, but with every syllable, his voice rose higher and higher. He was staring in to the flames as they danced in a mocking silhouette across his face. His onyx eyes burned with tears and regret. Still he didn't seem to know the others were there.

As soon as he finished yelling, Luffy buried his head in his arms and sobbed. He couldn't take the sight of fire any more.

As his captain assumed his defeated position, something clicked in Zoro's head.

_The fire,_ he thought, _Ace's alias was Fire Fist. Of course Lu would come down here! We're so stupid!_

_C_arefully, the first mate reached out to lay a calloused hand on his friend's shoulder, ignoring the startled jump that it provoked. He spoke with a sincerity that no one would have thought possible.

"Luffy, it's alright. I know you feel guilty you couldn't save Ace but…"

Having realized he wasn't alone, the rubber man's raven hair whipped about as his head shot up to meet the first mate's gaze; eyes still alight, yet dull. Luffy traced the x-shaped scar on his chest as he spoke.

"You're wrong Zoro," he whispered "I saved Ace from execution, then I gave him right to the molten hands of death himself."

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><p>AN: I abuse Luffy...so much. Next chapter will be just a brief explanation of the War and maybe the ending. IDK yet. All I can really tell you is that I probably won't be having Nami fix him. Even if she can relate. I really don't like her that much. And I've seen that scenario too much. Sorry DX<br>And for those of you wondering, the song Luffy was singing is called *Fin by Anberlin. It's long, so I only included the middle part of the last verse.  
>Still having problems with Zombie Plot Bunnies, so I'll see you lovely pirates next chapter! Whenever that is. I'll try to make it soon.<p>

Edit: I was just reading over this and found some issues and little things that bother me. So I fix owo


	4. Chapter 4

AN: This chapter was a bitch to write. Just sayin'. But I'm rather proud of the overall end result. Anyway, I reallllly want to thank everyone who stuck with me through this story, no matter where you first came in. It really means a lot (: I'm not use to such amazing amounts of feedback! I love you guys~

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><p>"…<em>I gave him right to the molten hands of death himself."<em>

The Captain's words echoed in his crew's ears. They had never, in all their time with him, heard the Strawhat boy sound so hollow. No one could manage to ask what he meant, but they didn't have too. After a thick silence, Luffy laughed. Zoro and the others would have given anything for him to laugh just a few minutes ago, but not like this. Nothing that came from that man's lip should sound that broken.

Luffy's coal eyes traveled over eight worried faces, and he laughed again, this time almost sounding hysterical, "I guess you guys want to know what I mean."

Everyone nodded.

The young man shifted uncomfortably, "I'll spare you the details about the war. You all know about that. What you don't know, is my side of the story."

"After I broke in, I was met with guards and marines blocking my every attempt to get to Ace. One of them poisoned me, and Iva-chan gave me these hormone thingies so that I could keep fighting. He told me that I'd be okay, but ten years of my life was gone. But that's not important…"

Chopper's soft gasp interrupted him. Usopp gently cupped the back of the reindeer's head before he could go into worried-doctor-mode. Luffy ignored it and continued.

"Anyway, we fought our way through, I reached the platform where they were holding Ace. I got him down fine, but then…" He paused, not wanting to relieve the rest of that day.

The others waited patiently for him to continue, but not daring to touch him. Luffy never accepted pity before, and no matter what the situation was, he wouldn't accept it now.

"Then," the captain began again a short while later, "Then I went and did something stupid. Even for me. I got distracted trying to make sure Ace got to safety, and didn't notice that this…this…admiral, Akainu, had snuck up on us. I was in the way. I wasn't watching. Next thing I know, Ace is taking that bastard's attack to protect me. Magma fist right through his chest…he was gone in a minute, died right in my arms. All my fault. All my weakling fault."

Luffy's voice cracked harshly as he began to shake, but to the astonishment of his crew, he wasn't crying.

Probably because there weren't any more tears to cry.

The rest of the Strawhat crew couldn't look away from him. Knowing their leader, a lot was left out of the story, but that was the least of their worries. They knew Luffy was strong and complex physically, but they had always found him to be simple in more intimate areas, like emotions and thought. Smile and go on, they believed. To try and understand how he harbored all of this darkness was almost unfathomable.

Gently, Zoro knelt in front of his friend, trying to get up the nerve to ask a question that had been bothering him since that morning.

"Luffy," the smaller pirate looked up, Zoro inhaled before speaking again, "Luffy, how does all that make your brother a liar? I don't understand."

The others almost fell. Leave it to the Marimo to pick **now** to ask such a question. They just hoped that Luffy wouldn't be too angry. When he smiled, almost grimaced, the crew was just a little surprised. They were even more surprised when he answered softly.

"He made a promise when we where little."

Everyone's eyes, even Brook's empty sockets, widened exponentially. Their captain never talked about his past, before. Not in detail. Yes, he would occasionally mention his grandpa, or Shanks, once he mentioned some woman named Makino, but other than that Luffy's childhood was a mystery. A mystery that was seemingly about to be solved, at least a little.

"You see," he said, "Ace wasn't my only big brother. I had one more; his name was Sabo. We didn't share blood, though, none of us did. We were foster brothers, cared for by the same woman, Dadan. Ace, Sabo, and I shared Sake one day, because Ace said that it would make us _real _brothers. I didn't understand, you know, being seven and all, but I didn't care. It meant I had friends, I had a family! We all shared a dream to adventure out at sea someday, and Sabo decided that he would escape our island and start his journey early. But before he could even get out sight, a marine ship shot his dingy down. We never found the body."

Luffy lowered his dark eyes to the floor then, refusing to look at anyone, "Ace promised me he wouldn't die too."

By now, Nami, Usopp, Chopper and Franky where crying silently, and Robin looked like she would start at any moment. Brook, Zoro, and Sanji where just mimicking their captain's actions and staring at the floor. They had all experienced some kind of loss once before, and until now, believed that the man in front of them was immune to that pain.

They had been naïve. Luffy was human too, no matter how much his actions debated it, and whether they showed it or not, human's felt pain. Why did their captain have to be any different? They had expected him to bounce back from this, just like he always had. He had seemed so much the same when they had reunited, but looking back the changes where grossly obvious.

He had become a little quieter, a little more serious, a little more _protective. _All of them had simply figured that Luffy was just mature now, but that wasn't it. That wasn't it at all.

He simply didn't want to loose them too.

Eight hearts, both physical and metaphorical, sank to the lowest depths of Davy Jone's Locker, weighed down with grief and guilt. They had to fix this.

"Luffy, it's going to be alright, we pro-…"

He cut Nami off, staring them all down with the most serious expression any of them had ever seen, "No. Don't promise anything." His stern façade broke, showing nothing more than the hurt teenager he really was, "I don't think I believe in promises anymore."

That was all it took. In one swift movement, the crew of the Thousand Sunny surrounded their broken child of a captain. The girls each hugged one of his sides, Chopper claimed possession of Luffy's left leg, Zoro and Sanji each hand a hand on a shoulders, and finally, the entire group was being held together by Franky and Brook each taking a half.

They would be the captain's family now. They wouldn't let him give up and become an empty, depressed shell of himself. He was still Monkey D. Luffy, captain of the Mugiwara no Kaizuko, Supernova, hero of Alabasta and many others, son of Dragon the Revolutionary, grandson of retired Marine Vice Admiral Garp, future King of the Pirates. They where going to make him better, no matter how long it took.

And that was the simple truth.

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><p>AN: Oh my ship. Liar is done! I both hated and enjoyed writing this. Depending on the chapter. I know that my retelling of Marineford and Sabo where choppy and fail, but I just feel like Luffy wouldn't be in the shape to relieve <em>everything, <em>you know? Anyway, thanks again to everyone who reviewed, faved, and added alerts. I have a new fic in mind, one less depressing, might I add, so I'll hopefully see you all again. Until then, my loves, until then :D


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